


Dogs of Summer

by danmatian, Tottrie



Category: Phandom/The Fantastic Foursome (YouTube RPF)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Summer Camp, Dogs, Fluff, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-21
Updated: 2018-07-21
Packaged: 2019-06-13 21:46:58
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,531
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15374022
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/danmatian/pseuds/danmatian, https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tottrie/pseuds/Tottrie
Summary: Dan is a new crafts counsellor at the Retriever Camp but things don't really go as it's supposed to when making square flakes. Luckily Phil steps in and helps him and they start talking and Dan thinks working at the camp actually can be fun. That's until the camp dog Dexter disappears and the enemy German Shepherd camp is blamed to have taken him.





	Dogs of Summer

**Author's Note:**

> This is a fic the Golden Retriever Tent wrote together for CampDnP. We had really fun writing it and we hope that you like it!

Dan was not what one would consider “the outdoorsy” type. He wouldn’t even consider himself the “standing waifishly on a balcony” type. There was by far too much sun and more biting insects than could really be ideal. But he needed to find a job and the one at the coffee shop fell through, so he was prepared to make due with what he could get.

The front gate of Camp Retriever lead up a steep gravel drive, lined on both sides by tall oaks, and providing a modest covering of shade. Dan’s shoes crunched with every step, but it wasn’t long before he came over the top of the hill and saw the campsite spread out before him.

Directly ahead was a long green roofed building with an open porch and at least three swinging screen doors. It formed the end of the drive and Dan suspected it was the camp’s main building. To the left, there was a short set of rough hewn stone steps leading to a number of smaller buildings.

Dan walked up to one of the open doors of the main hall and stuck his head in. It was a cozy little office space with dark wood paneled walls and lots of little crafts strewn about. Sitting at a desk at the far side was an older woman with dark red hair pulled into a sloppy bun. She noticed him only a moment later with a start. 

“Oh, Hello, you must be my new counsellor,” she rummaged around through some of her papers for a moment. “Daniel?”

Dan nodded “That’s me, just Dan’s fine.”

She stood and walked across the small room. Grasping his hand in an overly firm handshake, she led him back out the door. “Well Dan, you’re just in time, or actually slightly late, but that’s perfectly okay, most people get lost finding us the first time.” Clapping him hard on the back she continued. “You seem like a bright young lad and we are desperately short staffed this year. All of your background checks came back clear and I trust you got that email we sent you on what you’ll be doing while you’re here.”

Yes ma'am,” Dan said. He had in fact received the email in question only that morning and it was a large part of why he was running on the late side. It had somehow managed to land straight into his spam folder. Basically, it was just a little more detailed version of the job description he’d already read on the camp’s website, safety guidelines, and names of some of the senior staff members. There was even one guy who’d been working here for ages, some guy named Phil. Dan could only imagine the kind of person who would willingly go to work at a summer camp for that long.

While Dan was lost in thought, he realized he hadn’t been paying attention to where they’d been going until he almost walked right into the head counsellor. What was her name? Dan swore it was one of the things in the email.

They were now standing in front of a small wooden building very similar to the main hall. The same green roof and open porch, all to a much smaller scale. Written across the door was “Craft Corner” in chipped yellow paint.

The head counsellor turned to him. “Crafting starts in half an hour. You’ll find everything you need in here. Basically, you just show the kids how to make the square flakes, and for the love of god, don’t let them play with the scissors. We’ll send someone to check in on you in a bit.” She pressed an old house key into his hands, before turning and walking back to the main office

“Fuck,” Dan swore under his breath. The fuck is a square flake? Was that in the email too? He unlocked the door and stepped inside. Square shaped tables were scattered in the room with four chairs around them and paper and scissors on top of them. Dan made his way forward to the single table with a chair behind it that stood at the far end and turned around to look out over the room again. So far so good, he thought, now the only problem was the square flakes. He pulled up his phone, opened up the email, and scanned it. There under the title Crafts, he found it. But the description was so short and did almost nothing to lift his confusion. 

1\. Take a paper  
2\. Fold it 2 times on the middle  
3\. Cut in it

Okay, but how did that make a square flake? What even was a square flake? Why couldn't they have had a picture? The door opened suddenly and a wave of loudly talking children ran inside and sat down at the tables. Shocked, Dan looked at them and dropped his phone down at the table in front of him with a dull thud. He took a deep breath. Let’s do this, it couldn't go any worse than bad.

“Hey, everyone!” Dan said and the children turned to look at him for the first time. Silence spread in the room.

“Where is Phil?” a squeaky voice said from the back. Phil, the counsellor that Dan had read about, was he usually at the craft corner? 

“Ehm... I don’t know” he said uncertain and looked around for a paper and a scissor and luckily found some on the right side of the table. 

"We want Phil!” another voice screamed. Oh, no, this was no good.

“Yeah, but he isn’t here right now” he picked up a paper and a scissor that unfortunately only was right handed. He hoped that he could do a square flake to distract them. This Phil guy must be really popular. “And we are making square flakes today” he tried to sound as excited as he could but it came out so false that he was amazed that the children actually didn’t say anything more about Phil.

“So, you all have scissors and paper on your tables” he instructed and held up the white paper “And then you fold it…” he folded it twice it the air, the result was so far from straight but that didn’t matter, right? The children studied him, everyone with a paper in front of them, but no one did anything.

“And then you just cut in it..” Dan said and tried to manoeuvre the scissor with his right. He cut into the paper from different angles and then looked at it. This couldn’t be right… this looks like nothing… Just when he was about to cut into the paper again the door opened for the second time and a man walked in. He had black hair, dark as the night, that sat on his head in a quiff. His blue eyes, blue like the sky on a chilly day, locked with Dan’s from across the room Dan felt a warm feeling spreading all over his body.

“PHIL!!” screamed all of the children at once and the man - that apparently was Phil - looked away from Dan and smiled at the children.

“Hey, guys!” Phil said and held up his hand and waved at them.

“Phil, there is a man where you should be and can’t do square flakes!” one of the children said and pointed at Dan. Phil turned to Dan again and Dan knew he saw the failed square flake in his hand. An amused smile spread on his face.

“I’m sure he tried his best” Phil said and walked up to Dan still with his cute smile on his face. “Do you want me to show you how to do it?” he asked and the only thing Dan could do was nod, it was like his vocal cords had stopped working. He took a paper an scissor and without turning to the rest of the room folded the paper much neater than Dan had done. He then cut different forms into the paper with much better control than Dan had had and unfolded the paper and held it up in front of Dan. Oh, so that’s how you did it… but how was he supposed to know that from what the email had said?

“There aren’t any left handed scissors…” Dan pouted which made a soft laugh escape Phil's lips, the pout disappeared from Dan’s face and was replaced with a smile.

The children, now content that Phil was here, crafted away happily and Dan and Phil drifted to the back wall where they leaned themselves against the wall.

“So I take it you don’t have much experience working with kids?” Phil asked, a small smirk on his lips.

Dan felt his face warm, wondering if everything he did was as transparent as that. “No, This is my first time working at a camp.”

“Did you not go to camp as a kid?” Phil laughed.

He shook his head, “Did you? You seem to have a pretty good grasp of what’s going on around here.” Phil looked back at the kids crafting at the little square tables. Dan followed his gaze, but he could still hear the smile on Phil's face when he spoke.

“I’ve been coming here since I was a little kid. My older brother was actually a counsellor here before I was. It’s kind of a family thing at this point.” Dan turned to look at Phil and was surprised to find a look of almost sadness in his eyes. Phil continued, “It’s funny though, most of the counsellors come and go, but I guess I just really like it here. It’s like coming home every summer.” 

Dan nodded and waited for him to continue, but apparently, that was all he had to say. Deciding it was best to change the topic he said, “So, since I never got the ‘summer camp experience’ what’s the best part of being here?” Painfully generic, but maybe enough to get a conversation out of the dark haired counsellor.

Phil turned back to Dan with a grin. “Oh, definitely the camp dog! Square flakes being a very close second.”

“There’s…” Dan blinked. “...a camp dog?”

“Yeah! His name’s Baxter. He’s this big golden retriever and he’s really smart, and a very good boy. That’s why the camp is called Camp Retriever cause the owners are nuts about them”

Dan laughed at Phil’s enthusiasm, “Yeah?”

He nodded, “I always wanted a dog as a kid, but my parents got me a rabbit instead.”

“My family’s got a dog named Collin.” Dan said.

They continued to talk and laugh in their own little bubble, it was amazing and Dan never wanted it to stop. But when the door to the cabin closed with a loud bang both of them jumped in surprise and looked around the now empty, very messy room.

“We probably should clean up before the next group” Phil said and Dan nodded, the bubble was left at the wall but the happy feeling from the conversation lingered and it made Dan smile. 

 

Although all the campers were fast asleep, Dan struggled to fall asleep. He stared up at the ceiling, hoping sleep could find him. There was a light orange glow of light coming from the windows of the cabin, and he tried to focus his attention on it, but still, he felt fragile and helpless in the dark. He sighed, giving up his quest for sleep, and peeked over the rail of his bunk. Phil was asleep on the other side of the cabin. He wondered if it would be selfish to wake him up ask him for some company. Against his better judgement, he slowly climbed down from his bed and quietly crept across the cabin to where Phil was asleep.

“Phil?” he whispered, tapping on Phil’s shoulder. Phil stirred in his sleep, but remained asleep. Dan tapped his shoulder again and shook him gently.

"Phil?” he whispered again, a bit louder. This time Phil opened his eyes and squinted at Dan with a confused expression on his face. 

Dan smiled apologetically at him. “Can we go outside?”

Phil still held his confused expression, but sat up in his bed anyway. “Can you hand me my glasses?” he asked, pointing towards the desk where they sat. Dan nodded and walked towards the desk to retrieve Phil’s glasses. He handed them to Phil, and he put them on and crawled out of bed. They walked outside together, Phil following Dan, and quietly shutting the door behind him.

“What's up?” Phil asked once they had walked far enough away from the cabin.

“It…it's kind of lame,” Dan muttered, kicking at some dirt and rocks as he walked.

“You can tell me,” Phil reassured.

Dan sighed and stopped walking. Phil didn't notice at first and kept walking. He then suddenly stopped and turned around, walking back towards Dan. “What is it?”

“I was just… afraid. Of the dark. And I couldn't sleep. So I wanted your company?” It felt more like a question he should be asking, rather than an explanation. Like he was asking for permission to spend time with Phil.

“Well, why didn't you say so? That's no problem! I'd love to help. Maybe a walk will tire you out? Then you'll be able to sleep when we get back.”

“That sounds good,” Dan said. They began walking again, following the trail through the campground. They mostly stayed silent, and Dan was thankful for that; the sound of nature and the animals out in the wilderness was oddly soothing to him. Phil led the way mostly. He said he knew the campground in and out, and Dan believed it. He walked down the trail with ease, leading them to an incredible view of the beach. Phil led them to some rocks they could sit on and they sat down, admiring the view of the waves crashing on the shore. The stars were stunning. Dan had never seen them so bright before.

“It was worth the walk, wasn't it?” Phil asked, breaking the long silence between them.

Dan simply nodded. The moon was so bright it lit up the whole beach, causing the waves to listen as they settled. Finally, he said, “maybe I should wake you up to go on late night walks with me more often.”

“I'd like that,” Phil said softly. Suddenly, there was a sound rustling in the woods behind them. Dan jumped and screamed, which caused Phil to jump up and look around. “What was that?!”

“It's a demon! Fuck, Phil!” Dan screeched, trembling slightly.

“Okay, calm down. I don't think it's a demon necessarily. Maybe we should head back to the cabin.”

“Yeah… Not a demon. Maybe I need that sleep now,” Dan half laughed, mostly out of embarrassment, and began walking back towards the trail. They walked back to their cabin and Phil opened the door, holding it open for Dan as he walked in. Dan was thankful for the dark for once because he felt a blush creep up on his cheeks, his face hot. He crawled back into bed and watched as Phil's silhouette walked around the cabin as he found his way back to his bed.  
He had no trouble falling asleep this time. 

 

Dan woke the next morning to hear campers shouting and rushing about. A quick look around the cabin revealed he was the only one still there. He threw on whatever shirt was closest and tugged on his shoes. Outside, there were counsellors trying their best to corral kids to their activities while others were running back and forth shouting to each other. Dan looked frantically for someone who looked like they knew what was going on. Instead, he found Phil.

Phil was talking and waving his hands at a young woman wearing a bright red shirt that read “lifeguard”. She looked irritated and stood with her hands on her hips. As Dan came closer he could hear what Phil was saying.

“...at all last night? You’re cabin’s the closest to that side of camp.” he looked like he was desperate for any kind of answer.

The lifeguard shook her head and had the decency to look like she felt at least a little bad. “Sorry, Phil, but I didn’t hear anything. I must have been asleep already.”

Phil sighed, shoulders dropping. “Alright, thanks, Natasha. If you remember anything you’ll let me know, right?” The girl nodded and started to head out towards the beach, leaving Phil alone.

Dan called out to him, “Hey, what’s going on? Is something wrong?” worry colouring his tone. Phil jumped letting out a small yelp, clearly surprised by Dan’s, approach. He turned and Dan could see the concern in his usually bright blue eyes. He shook his head,

“The camp dog, Baxter is missing. No one knows where he went, he was just gone when we got up this morning.” Phil’s hair was a mess, stood up all on end, it looked like he’d been running his hands through it nonstop for the last hour. He made a sound of frustration and dragged his hands down his face. “Best we can figure is… maybe he was dog-napped by the other camp? I don’t know!”

“Why would the other camp steal our dog?” Dan was still new at this whole ‘camp’ thing, but stealing a dog seemed a bit unusual. 

Phil sighed, “We have this dumb rivals thing going on with them. Most of the time it’s just silly pranks and things back and forth.”

“And you think they stole Baxter?” Dan asked again.

Phil shrugged, “I guess? Honestly, at this point, it’s the best lead we’ve got.”

Dan nodded but had stopped listening, thinking back to the last time he’d seen Phil. “Do you think this has anything to do with that sound we heard last night down by the beach?” He blanched at the thought of a bunch of middle schoolers hearing him scream about demons.

Phil’s eyebrows shot up and he grabbed Dan’s arms. “I forgot about that! I bet that’s exactly what that was!” He tugged Dan by the hand towards the main building.

“We should tell Carmin and ask her what we should do next!”

Dan followed, stumbling, behind Phil in his excitement. They found the head counsellor, Carmin apparently, at her desk, just as Dan had found her the other day. Did she even sleep? Phil was frantically explaining to her what he’d told Dan. She was nodding along, frown deepening with every word.

“So what should we do?” Phil’s words came out all in one breath. 

Carmin sighed and placed her head in her hands. “And we’re positive he’s not someplace on the grounds?” Phil nodded but didn’t say anything else. She sat there for a moment longer, before picking her head up off her hands and saying, “Yeah, you know what, sure. It’s the best we’ve got. I’ll round up someone to go over to Camp Shepherd and look around." Dan turned, ready to head back out to the campground, when he heard Phil speak again.

“I’ll go.”

Dan froze in the doorway. He hardly knew Phil and yet the only thing he could think was how much of a ‘Phil’ thing this whole situation was. He slowly turned back to face Phil and Carmin. “I’ll go with him.” he heard himself say.

Carmin clapped her hands, together loudly, breaking Dan out of whatever trance he’d been in. “Perfect.” She looked to Phil, “I trust you to do the right thing here. The last thing we want is an all out camp war over a misunderstanding.” Turning to Dan she continued, “and for you, make sure he doesn’t get himself hurt wandering through the woods. He’s a massive clutz.” She smiled through Phil’s indignant ‘hey!’ “Now go, I have a camp to get straightened back out after all this mess.”

“So what’s the plan exactly?” Dan asked once they were a ways away from the main building.

“Oh, I don’t have one” Phil admitted rubbing the back of his neck. “I was just going to kind of wing it.”

Dan sputtered, “Just ‘wing it’? What like walk in the front and demand our dog back?”

“Basically, yeah” he replied sheepishly.

Dan pouted, “From the way you guys were talking about it I figured there’d be more spying and sneaking around, maybe a little bit of advanced interrogation techniques.”

Phil tipped his head at Dan, “It’s a summer camp, Dan. Plus it’s broad daylight. We’re all adults here and we can politely ask if they’ve seen our dog.”

“I guess” Dan huffed his reply. “Where is this other camp anyway? I didn’t see it when I came up the other day.”

“It’s just down the road a little bit from us.” he pointed to what looked to Dan like a random patch of trees along the road. “If you see them it generally means you went too far.”

As they walked Dan was starting to see the thinning of the trees around what did indeed look to be the entrance to another summer camp. The front gate had a hand painted sign with the words “Camp Shepherd” below which was a brown and black blob that Dan was pretty sure was meant to be a dog and some fluffy white sheep.

Walking into this camp felt oddly like dejavu for Dan. The layout was nearly a perfect mirror to that of Camp Retriever. A few adults were running back and forth across the fields between cabins and other buildings, campers going to and from activities. All in all, it looked like a perfectly normal summer camp. Of course it does. Dan thought as they made their way towards the main building. It is a perfectly normal summer camp.

They quickly located someone barking orders to other counsellor types and holding a clipboard, a sure sign of an authority figure. He looked like a man in his late forties with sparse grey hair clinging to the very edges of his skull.

Phil was first to speak. “Excuse me? I was wonderi-”

The other man cut him off with a wave. “I’m sorry, but I really don’t have time. If you have a complaint you’ll have to find the head of... “ he grumbled and scowled at his clipboard, “whatever division.”

“Oh.” Phil said his voice small.

Dan could tell Phil wasn’t as comfortable with this whole thing as he’d made out to be earlier and this man’s rude reply certainly wasn’t helping. So he stepped forwards a bit, placing himself ever so slightly in front of Phil and tried again. “Hey, excuse me” Dan said with a bit more force than Phil had. “I don’t think you heard us right.”

This was enough for the man to stop looking at his clipboard and actually look at them for the first time since they arrived. “You’re from Retriever aren’t you.” a statement more than a question, “What do you want?”

Dan opened his mouth and was entirely ready to make a somewhat impolite inquisition of the man when he felt a gentle touch on his shoulder.

Phil spoke up from behind Dan. “We can’t find Baxter, our camp dog, and we were wondering if you’d seen him come through?”

The man scoffed, “You want to know if we took him, don’t you? Well sorry to say, but we haven’t seen him. Now if you don’t mind…”

Just then a young woman ran up to clipboard-man and attempted to say something. However, she was so out of breath that all that came out was a wheeze. She placed her hands on her knees while Dan and Phil stood awkwardly, not sure if they should leave yet, but also curious of what could have been so urgent to require running all the way across camp. After a moment she’d caught her breath back and finally spoke, “Tesla, sir. She’s not in the house. We-we can’t find her anywhere!”

“Who’s Tesla?” Dan asked without thinking.

Clipboard-man scowled but said, “She’s our camp dog, and it’s awfully suspicious that both our dogs go missing on the same day.”

“What if they’ve been dog-napped!” was Phil’s less than helpful reply.

“I’m sure they’re fine.” Dan attempted to reassure him, though if he was entirely honest he didn’t have any clue where else they could be. “Maybe we can check and see if he’s made it back home while we’ve been out?” Phil opened his mouth to reply, but instead froze. Dan was about to ask him if he was alright when he heard a faint barking coming from the woods behind them.

“Is that them?” Phil asked, barely over a whisper. He didn’t give Dan a chance to say anything however as instead he began sprinting full tilt towards the woods. Dan blinked and tried to catch up, but years of internet surfing couldn’t quite keep pace with the more active counselor lifestyle. It didn’t matter though because by the time they reached the edge of the woods they could see the bounding golden form of Baxter barreling towards them. He barked at them, excitedly wagged, and then turned around and bolted back into the woods, stopping before he was completely out of sight.

“I think he wants us to follow him” Phil said, beaming.

“How can you possibly know that?” Dan struggled to ask between breaths. But Phil was already crashing through the forest after this dog and Dan wasn’t about to leave him now.

They followed Baxter through the woods, over logs and under fallen trees. Anytime he would get ahead of them he would stop and wait for them to catch up, tail wagging non-stop. After what felt like an eternity of woods travel to Dan, Baxter finally stopped at an abandoned building. It looked like it may have been a cabin at one point, but had been abandoned so long it was hard to tell. Baxter stood by the door, so far off its hinges it left a gap more than large enough to fit a good sized dog. Inside Dan thought he could hear tiny scuffling and mewling sounds.

Phil pulled at the door, under the watchful eye of Baxter and stepped inside, Dan close on his heels. It took a second for their eyes to adjust to the dim light of the cabin, but once they did they could clearly make out the shape of another dog, this one a German shepherd, curled around a cluster of tiny wiggling puppies.

“Aww. So precious.” Phil whispered, careful not to spook the mother or upset the babies.

“Tiny.” Dan agreed. “But what now?”

Phil looked around the cabin. “Well, I assume this is Tesla,” he gestures to the German shepherd, “and she and Baxter are in love and these are their babies.”

Dan nodded, “I kind of figured that part. But I was wondering more about the ‘getting them back to camp’ part.”

Phil carefully picked his way across the floor of the cabin, testing each step, until he’d reached a pile of fabric on the floor. Dan thought it wise to stay put, Carmin was worried about Phil being clumsy, but honestly, he wasn’t much better. The item Phil had grabbed appeared to be an ancient blanket, or maybe a rug, probably a rug. He tried to shake the worst of the dirt off before bringing it back over to Dan and the puppies. “Here.” he shoved the fabric at dan. “hold this.”

Dan did as he was told and watched as Phil slowly crouched down beside Tesla. speaking to her in soft words Dan couldn’t quite make out. With the care of someone trying to hold onto a soap bubble without bursting it, he gently lifted one of the puppies and placed into the fabric sling Dan now held. Tesla watched, but never growled or moved to stop him. One by one Phil handed the puppies to Dan, eight in total. Once the last puppy was safely transferred Phil slid his hands under Tesla herself and lifted her up into his arms. Dan was more than a little impressed and blamed the heat rising in his cheeks on the exercise.

It was a bit of work getting them all out of the crooked door of the old cabin, but they made it.

“Let’s go this way” Phil said, beginning to walk away from the old building.

“Didn’t we come in the other way?” Dan asked looking back over his shoulder. He was sure of it.

“Yeah, but the Retriever camp is actually closer if we cut through the woods this way.”

Dan was sceptical, but figured that Phil practically grew up in these woods, and so followed him through the maze of oaks. It was like Phil could read them like a road map and never had to turn back or sway. Baxter wagged along beside them now stuck close to their heels like glue. After a bit, the trees began to thin and sure enough, there was the backside of one of the retriever cabins, just as Phil had promised.

 

As the sun set, kids and counsellors from the Shepherd camp came flowing into the Retriever campground and spreading out everywhere. Shepherds and Retrievers talking and laughing with each other as the counsellors started the big campfire. Dan and Phil sat down in the grass by the dogs, so close together that their thighs touched and sent shivers through Dan's body. Many children stood around the dogs and Dan and Phil had to keep an eye on them so they didn’t pick up the tiny puppies.

“I have worked here, at this camp for so many years, and never have the two camps come together like this” Phil said as he looked out over the grounds with a happy glow in his so sky blue eyes. “And all of it just because two dogs fell in love” he laughed and it was so infectious that Dan couldn’t help but laugh as well.

“Maybe next year we can make it so the different camps do more things together?”

“You will be here next year?” Phil asked happily with a big smile on his face.

“Of course, I need to improve my square flake skills!” Dan said and matched Phil's smile with his own.

The initial excitement of the puppies soon wore off for the children. Particularly losing interest after being told the puppies were too young to play with. Looking for something more interesting, they ran off towards the big fire where one of the other counsellors had already taken out a guitar. However, Dan and Phil stayed behind. They sat close together and looked at the small puppies that crawled on the ground. They could hear the rest of the camp start singing but the words got lost on their way to them.

"We should name them!” Phil suddenly said hitting Dan’s arm with both hands. He radiated so much excitement it made Dan giggle after the initial shock from Phil's outburst.

“Okay, what do you want to name them?” he asked and looked at Phil with a small smile instead of the puppies but the sight was just as cute.

“Susan,” Phil said firmly with a nod. Dan waited for him to continue but Phil stayed quiet.

“What about the other seven?”

“No, all of them are named Susan”

“So how do you keep them apart?” Dan asked amused by Phil's puzzled face that he got from the question.

“Well, then I name them Susan 1, Susan 2, Sus..”

“No you spoon, you can't name them that!” Dan interrupted and playfully pushed Phil away from him.

“Why not?” Phil giggled and bumped his shoulder to Dan’s who then returned the favour.

“You can't have numbers in dogs names”

“Okay… But one of them is Susan”

“Yeah, one of them can be called Susan” Dan said looked down at the grass and shook his head affectionately. Over at the campfire, the ‘good night’ song was sung and the campers were lead back to their cabins. A still silence fell over them. In the far distance, they could hear the calm ocean waves flow up on the beach and a birds’ night notes came from the forest of oaks. Baxter and Tesla had curled up together with the eight tiny puppies sleeping soundly between them. Phil's hand found Dan’s in the grass, and their fingers slotted together perfectly.

“Dan,” Phil said softly and Dan looked up, their eyes locked and they smiled shyly at each other. He could feel his heart beating fast and hard in his chest. It was only yesterday that he met Phil but when he looked into those eyes it felt like much longer. Phil leaned in, placing a soft kiss on Dan's cheek who heated up like they were set on fire and his smile spread over his face.

“I’m really glad I met you, Dan” Phil said when his lips left Dan's cheeks. Dan curled up against Phil, laid his head on his shoulder and sighed contently.

“I’m glad I met you too, Phil”


End file.
